Super Grateful Sunday, 3.20.2011

This meme was created with the belief that good things come to us when we are thankful. Reflect on the past 7 days, and every Sunday, list at least 7 things for which you are grateful.

"What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life." - OPRAH WINFREY

1. The wonderful aroma of coffee brewing in the morning.
2. Spending time with friends at the park.
3. The beautiful weather we've been having -- I've left the AC on all week, and yesterday, I've opened our front door and all our windows to let the cool breeze cleanse our home.
4. Homemade cat litter, and how my fur kid seems to be taking well to it.
5. Being able to accompany mom to her doctor's appointments and helping her with her diet and lifestyle changes.
6. Celebrating the colorful Hindu holiday, Holi:
   
   

   

   Source: Wikipedia

    Everyone was so happy and festive. The sights, sounds, scents, and most of all, the food (gosh, the food!) was amazing.
7. Tan lines!
8. Turning the perfect shade of brown.
9. The Kiddo singing old jazz standards.
10. Dinner outdoors! 

Happy Holi!

Spring Break 2011

The kiddo has been on a week-long break from school, and as I promised her, we haven't done a whole lot of work. Even I took a break from thinking too much (something I need to do every day, really) and job-hunting and, instead, enjoyed having my little girl around during the day when she is usually at school. This week was spent being in the comfort of home resting; at the park biking, s****ing, and thumb wrestling; visiting her old montessori school and being grandma's helper (grandma still teaches at her old school); more biking, s****ing, and go-cart riding with her Poppa (my ex's father-in-law)...and the list goes on.

This has all in all been a much-needed and well-deserved break for the little one who has worked hard all year. Tomorrow, piano practice resumes, school starts on Monday–but we will take it slow and ease into the regular routine again.

Oh, and you are looking at the current undisputed Thumb War champion of our neighborhood park. Okay, so my opponents were 6 to 8 years-old, but still. The 6 year-old was really tough. I kid, I kid.

How was your Spring Break?

Stylish Blogger Award

The lovely Keda at Journey Keeper bestowed this honor (also my first award - yay!) upon me, thus bringing a bit of sunshine to my rainy day Monday morning. Please check out her blog and read about her journey as a mother, wife, writer, woman. Thank you, Keda!

I would also like to thank the Academy... oops, wrong organization.

So, per this award's tradition, I give you 8 things about me that I haven't written about here and that you probably don't know.

1. I am Filipino by descent, with a dash of other ethnicities thrown in to taste.
2. I had a lucid dream twice in which I willed something to happen in my head... and it happened in my waking life! On one of these occasions, it woke my ex-husband up, who was lying next to me. (No, I'm keeping what I willed to happen a secret!)
3. I am a lefty.
4. I have a big crush on Jason Mraz.
5. I have waist-long hair that I cut myself, although the next time it's trimmed, it will probably be done by a pro.
6. I tend to feel a bit dreary when the sun doesn't come out for days at a time. 
7. I love to eat (a LOT), and I have an adventurous palate. 
8. Related to 7, my super fast metabolism prevents me from putting on the pounds. I wouldn't mind gaining a few more, but happy where I am.

The next part of the tradition is to pass on the award to 8 bloggers I follow. So without further ado, below are 8 amazing blogs (in no particular order). Do check them out:

1. Intentional Conscious Parenting
2. ARTMUSEDOGS
3. I Married a Moron - And Survived!
4. Blue Frogs Legs
5. Our Italian Life
6. Confabulicious
7. Living Montessori Now
8. Pandora Poikilos

Love and blessings.

Super Grateful Sunday, 3.13.2011

This meme was created with the belief that good things come to us when we are thankful. Reflect on the past 7 days, and every Sunday, list at least 7 things for which you are grateful.

"Gratitude arises whenever you start feeling God’s presence around you; then only gratitude is left. Then your whole energy becomes gratitude, then your whole being becomes a thanksgiving, it becomes a prayer — because nothing is missing, and the world is so perfect, and everything is as it should be. Gratitude is natural. Gratitude is not something that can be practiced. You have been taught to be grateful; you cannot be. Gratefulness is a consequence: when you feel God close by, gratitude arises. It is a by-product. Respect arises. This respect is not something that you manage, it is something beyond you. You have been taught to be grateful to your parents, taught to be grateful to your teachers, taught to be grateful to your elders, but those are all just conditionings. When real gratitude arises, then you see what a tremendous difference there is. The gratitude that was taught was just a concept, a dead ritual. You were following it like a mechanism. When the real gratitude upsurges in your being, you feel for the first time what prayer is, what love is." - OSHO

1. A week-long break of doing nothing but being, exploring, having fun, spending time, sleeping in, imagining, and enjoying (with a little bit of fun work in between *wink*).
2. A beautiful Sunday morning.
3. Being reminded of the existence of a greater, wiser me just beyond the littler, thinking me.
4. Having two precious beings in my life who still remember who they are in their essence and who remind me of who I am in mine.
5. Having faith.
6. Being able to see the beauty in other people.
7. Accidental phone call from my best friend as I was sleeping. He had just woken up himself, so he was still disoriented and mistook me for his nephew. I always jump at the chance to give him a hard time. It always results in laughter. Great way to wake up.
8. The sunlight streaming through the soft, sheer, white drapes on my bedroom window, so pure, comforting, and reassuring.
9. My little history buff, who, I'm sure is geeking out at the Alamo with her grandfather.
10. Delicious lemon squares that my ex- father-in-law sent home with me.

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Wordless Wednesday: Cutest Laundry Ever

Balancing Work and Play

The Kiddo has been bemoaning the fact that there's so much to do and so little time to play. She's right, of course. With the end of the school year almost here, there are a lot of events culminating to punctuate the year's end. And as much as we love recitals, musicals, festivals, etc., it also means we have to work (or in our case, practice) a LOT. Not to mention we have to keep up with school work. Needless to say, when there is a flurry of activities, it's easy to forget to take that precious breather.

So, since she has been working so hard, we are going to figure out what we can do LESS of so we have more time for play and rest, for sitting outside and sipping a cold drink, for reading on the grass at the park, for having a heyday on the jungle gym, for going out on walks.

Taken during one of our walks at the park.

And come Spring Break, we are most definitely going to do a heck of a lot of nothing.

(A Late) Super Grateful Sunday, 3.8.2011

This meme was created with the belief that good things come to us when we are thankful. Reflect on the past 7 days, and every Sunday, list at least 7 things for which you are grateful.

"For today and its blessings, I owe the world an attitude of gratitude. "
- CLARENCE E. HODGES

1. School musicals!
2. That first cup of coffee in the morning
3. The "Life is good" philosophy my cat seems to live by
4. The delicious, herby, comforting goodness of pho, a Vietnamese soup, after said school musical
5. Getting caught up with friends
6. The cuteness of kids
7. Another visit from the days-absent cat we fondly call Mr. Woo (or Pepper, as he is more commonly known)
8. Waking up to a dark, rainy day, causing us to wish for a day in and more time for snuggling under the covers
9. Hope, hope, hope
10. Inspirational songs: